Computer World: A worthless rag

I can't say enough bad about ComputerWorld. Maybe I should concentrate on the positive. It's much easier to cover. They do bring up interesting topics which gives you the opportunity to research. Kind of like watching the Bush administration. Can't get anything right. Or, probably more likely, they are out to dupe you so they can make profits through the back door. Doing good doesn't pay because it's expected. To cover for the thief doing the wrong thing you can always expect a pay back.

Lets check out this article from Computerworld taken from the link in the title above and break it down to salient points:

• 64GB solid-state disk! Very nice. Very interesting.


• Dell owns Alienware. (So you can probably expect the same bad Indian support crew.)


• "Unlike traditional hard drives, solid-state drives contain no moving parts that can be damaged or worn over time." With this bad information it starts to go downhill. Flash drives wear out in less than a million reads or writes making them only good for things that rarely get accessed. Like cameras, MP3 players, backup storage, etc.. Normal hard disks outlast solid-state drives by huge margins.


• "improved power consumption and speed of solid-state drives leapfrogs hard drive technology". More bullshit. Speed is usually much slower. It's a mixed bag heavily weighted against solid-state disks. However there are specialized cases where it is faster. I'm going to assume they got it right on the power but I probably should verify it considering the source.


• "the flash-based technology's steep price point continues to hamper adoption, analysts say." Uh huh. This analysts says that's not the only factor that limits it. The steep price is what allows companies to pay for glowing reviews in magazines like Computerworld. It is not what keeps it from being adopted.


• 'Hybrid we consider to be a Band-Aid approach to solid state," said Diana. "Solid state pretty much puts hybrid in an obsolete class right now."' Uh, she obviously is looking for a career at M$ or in politics. A HD with a GB of cache on it will certainly handle most market niches far far better than any solid-state disk on the market. Or in development currently. If there were a fundamental change in the physics behind solid-state disks that allowed them not to wear out after a hundred thousand writes or a million reads it might be a different story. Then they could work on the speed. But as it stands right now it is buyer beware. Solid state disks are only good for niche markets with very specific access patterns. And Computerworld readers need to understand what Computerworld offers...

Here's the article in all its glory:

Alienware supercharges desktop with 64GB solid-state drives
Plans to add drives to other PCs next year; stays mum on parent Dell's plans
Brian Fonseca
October 09, 2007 (Computerworld) -- Alienware Tuesday introduced a 64GB solid-state storage option for its Alienware Area-51 ALX and Aurora ALX desktop computers.

Marc Diana, product marketing manager at Miami-based Alienware said the company plans to add solid-state functionality to its other desktop offerings by mid-2008.

Diana would not say whether Alienware's parent firm, Dell Inc., also plans to use the solid-state storage options in its personal computers. Dell officials could not be reached for comment.

Earlier this year, Dell announced a 32GB solid-state option for its Latitude D420 and D629 ATG notebook computers. The PC vendor has been relatively silent on the solid-state front ever since.

Unlike traditional hard drives, solid-state drives contain no moving parts that can be damaged or worn over time. While the reliability, improved power consumption and speed of solid-state drives leapfrogs hard drive technology, the flash-based technology's steep price point continues to hamper adoption, analysts say.

"Using solid-state drives completely as a primary solution right now is a significant price premium to traditional hard drives," said Jeff Janukowicz, an analyst at Framingham, Mass.-based IDC.

Still, IDC foresees growing interest in the emerging storage technology. A report released by the IT research firm in July predicted that sales of solid-state drives will skyrocket from $373 million in 2006 to $5.4 billion in 2011.

Despite admitting solid-state technology is "very expensive" and isn't yet "mature enough" for the mainstream market, Diana downplayed swirling interest in hybrid flash memory/disk drives, such as the new Seagate Technology LLC offering announced on Monday.

"Hybrid we consider to be a Band-Aid approach to solid state," said Diana. "Solid state pretty much puts hybrid in an obsolete class right now."